McCain pushes for more guardsmen on border - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

McCain pushes for more guardsmen on border

Lawmakers and the White House are at odds over a plan that could send thousands of soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border.

President Obama has already ordered the Pentagon to draw up plans to send 1,200 troops to respond to escalating border area violence. But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is mounting an effort to get the number of troops increased to 6,000, saying Obama is sending only about 20 percent of what is needed.

At the urging of the governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, the administration has agreed to send the National Guard to deal with a situation that has become increasingly fragile over the last 16 months amid growing violence over the movement of illegal trucks and illegal immigration. Details of the plan are still in the works.

McCain lost the first skirmish of his effort when the Senate tabled his amendment to the wartime supplemental appropriations bill that would have sent 6,000 troops deployed to the border within 72 hours of the bill becoming law.

He regrouped, and got the Senate Armed Services Committee — on which he serves as ranking Republican — to attach the plan to the 2011 defense authorization bill. The drawback for him is that that bill won’t become law soon, and he still has to find the $2.5 billion it would cost for the additional deployments.

The 1,200 troops being deployed under Obama’s order will join about 340 service members currently working in border-related assignments in support of federal law enforcement. While the movement is expected to involve mostly Army Guardsmen, the $500 million upgrades in border protection and law enforcement also could end up involving the other services, administration officials said.

The troops being sent will handle missions similar to those undertaken in the past: supporting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance efforts; intelligence analysis; counterdrug enforcement; and providing training capacity until more Customs and Border Protection officers and agents can be recruited and trained, administration officials said.

Some lawmakers don’t like the idea of sending troops. Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said he understands the urge to improve security, but “militarizing of the border is something I clearly do not believe is in our collective interest.”

Menendez also said he felt the National Guard was stressed enough.

“They have been called for deployment abroad, both in Iraq and Afghanistan, and elsewhere in unprecedented numbers,” he said.

———

Staff writer David Larter contributed to this report.